Korean Air’s Inaugural Flight from Incheon to Lombok

Seoul, South Korea: Lombok's charm starts to 'bewitch' tourists from South Korea. This was proven by Korean Air's first flight to Lombok on Saturday morning (29/7). For the first Time!

July 29, 2017, became a milestone in Indonesia's aviation history. Korean Air, for the first time flew directly from Incheon Airport, Seoul to Lombok.

A total of 183 passengers looking cheerful and enthusiastic waited for the inaugural flight of Korean Air flight code KE9629 to the neighboring island of Bali, Lombok. Although the average of them has never been to Indonesia, but all were convinced that the island of their destination is very beautiful.

The flight to Lombok is a relatively long, about 6 hours 20 minutes. However, all of the passengers seemed not to care. Lombok seems to have become a magnet which is irreplaceable by any other place in the world.

"I and my two kids want to go on vacation and I think Lombok is an interesting destination. I am convinced about it after watching Lombok from the show on Korean TV station," said a mother with two children.

"I have never been to Indonesia, but after watching a series of cooking shows on TV which took place at a Lombok beach, I became interested to go there," said another passenger who is still a student.

Apparently, most of the passengers of this first flight to Lombok were hypnotized by Youn's Kitchen culinary Reality Show series of which the venue of the shooting was a beach in Lombok. The Reality Show on South Korea's TV Station has been aired nine times and made Lombok popular among the Koreans.

The Indonesian Embassy in Seoul also felt the impact of Youn's Kitchen as they received a lot of calls from Korean people who want to know about the exotica of Lombok Island.

Inevitably, Korean Air airlines want to take advantage of Youn's Kitchen's popularity. Then they made a package of flight and tour visits to Lombok for four nights with various purposes such as Gili, Rinjani until playing golf.

There will be five of these first flights, each on July 29, August 2, August 6, and during the Chuseon holiday in early October, they are still charter flights. The aircraft used is Airbus type A330-200Q with a capacity of 218 passengers. If it is considered profitable, it is possible that someday it will become a regular flight. From the current data, the current seat booking rate is already above 90 percent. Even, there is even already a fully booked one!

Ambassador Umar Hadi welcomed this inaugural flight. For him, this is the result of a joint effort to encourage more Korean tourists to come to Indonesia. There are still many other promotions to be developed

"Just wait for other surprises," said Ambassador Umar. (Sources: Indonesian Embassy in Seoul)